These teachings relate generally to a construction object (a structure) that enables access to high altitudes, namely, space, and, more particularly, to a construction object that can provide firm support for the vehicles to climb up to space, as well as to descend from space to the ground, and to the method to build this object.
Currently, high altitudes are reached by rocket propelled vehicles which are very costly, dangerous, and inefficient. Current method for the vehicle to descend from the high altitudes to the ground involves either very risky fall through the Earth atmosphere, or its abandonment and destruction since complex and heavy safe-back-to-Earth-enabled construction are not worth the cost of sending it to the space. These methods have been used for the past 50 years and have not improved significantly. It is true that it is less expensive to reach the space today then it was in the past, but it is also true that there is a greater need for easier access to the space. The greater need for routine access to the space resulted in space shuttle project by NASA. This project failed to provide cheap and easy access to the space; on the contrary, it proved to be even more costly and risky. Space shuttle utilized the same basic principle of rocket engine to move the vehicle up to the high altitudes and it differs from previous methods by utilizing the same piece of rocket for the next flights. Need for easy and routine access to the space resulted also in Spaceship One project by Scaled Composites LLC. This project combined reaching high altitudes by airplane and then shooting up the rocket from the high altitude further to the space. This method proved to be cheaper then the ones used before, but it still relying on rocket engines to pass the most critical and longest part of the trip to the space.
Alternative concepts that do not use rocket engine to reach the space are the space elevator proposed by Yuri Artsutanov (see also Bradley Edwards, “The Space Elevator,” Phase I Study—NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, Report June, 2000, which is hereby incorporated by reference) and space fountain proposed by Robert L. Forward and others. Space elevator's main advantage would be to give firm support to the vehicles to climb up to the space via long rope that is hanging from the space by utilizing centrifugal force of the Earth rotation rather then to use explosive action to push vehicles up. Drawback of space elevator proposal is that today's technology cannot find materials which would enable space elevator to be built. Space fountain concept involves building high tower that would be held straight up by shooting up massive pallets. When the pallets would hit the upper end they would be directed down, and the force of their redirection would keep the upper end from falling. Drawback of this method is that it needs constant power input to stay up and is in essence similar to rocket propelled vehicle that constantly stays up.
Simple, routine, and inexpensive access to the space would have enormous impact on our lives and lives of the future generations. It is therefore a need to provide easy access to the space by the vehicles that could climb up to the space instead of being fired up, as well as to provide the easy access to the Earth from the space for the same vehicles. Easy access would open the door to the new frontiers and to not so rich countries, companies, and people. This massive access to the space would in return provide benefits to the whole mankind.